Please Tell Me That Getting Blown Out By The Wizards Is Rock Bottom For The C's This Season

 

    Just when you think that things cannot get much worse for the reeling Celtics (13-13 overall, 7-9 away), they lay a complete egg on Valentine's Day against undoubtedly one of the worst teams in the NBA. Washington (7-17 overall, 3-9 home) was never even challenged this afternoon at Capital One Arena as they defeated Boston 104-91. Coming off of Friday's loss to another awful team-Detroit (8-19 overall)-you figured that the C's would be motivated and ready to show that they are not an utter mess. Welp, that didn't happen as they lost for the fourth time in the last five games and they fell to 3-7 in their last 10 games. Is that bad? I really don't know what Boston's excuse for playing so poorly will end up being. Other than guard Marcus Smart (left calf) remaining out, this was about as healthy as the Celts have been all season as forward Semi Ojeleye and center Robert Williams III both returned to the court. 

    Point guard Kemba Walker (25 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (25 points, 7 rebounds) were both good for Boston but their next highest scorer was Jayson Tatum (6 points, 8 rebounds) who had one of the worst performances in his NBA career, going 3-of-14 from the field which is stunning for him especially against what should be a very favorable opponent to do some damage against. I'm really struggling to figure out a quick-fix solution to whatever is ailing the Celtics at the moment. Head coach Brad Stevens and/or GM Danny Ainge don't deserve to be fired, let's not be ridiculous, but it shows you how rough things have been lately that those words don't seem completely far-fetched. Still, it's all about the players and while the roster is flawed, they should not be sitting at .500 this far into the campaign. 

    The Wizards had five guys score in double-figures led by shooting guard Bradley Beal (game-high 35 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) who would be a lock for the All-Star Game if his team wasn't such a joke. Power forward Rui Hachimura added 15 points, the ghost of Russell Westbrook nearly had a triple-double (13 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds), center Mo Wagner notched 11 points and two steals while Sideshow Robin Lopez posted 10 points off the bench. It's not even halfway through this season but coming into today, I would have called it basically a must-win for the C's. They apparently didn't get the memo though as they never even made it remotely competitive. Down 29-22 after the first quarter, they trailed by double-digits (55-43) at halftime and then they gave up in the third quarter-getting outscored by 10 points (34-24). 

    I'm at a loss for words, this is simply not acceptable for a club that went to the Eastern Conference Final last season and had similar expectations in 2020-21 with two young All-Stars just starting to reach their prime years and a decent supporting cast around them. They trailed by 25 points today to a team that will be one of the front-runners to get the No. 1 pick in this 2021 Draft. They were outworked by a group of misfits that are already playing out the string: Washington hit 13 more free throws (31-18) and handed out 10 more assists (24-14). Losing to the Pistons should have served as a wake-up call and now it's on the players to figure this out or else Ainge might be forced to make some drastic changes. 

    Boston returns to TD Garden for a pivotal three-game homestand this week starting with Denver (15-11 overall, 7-5 road) on Tuesday (7, NBC Sports Boston) then followed by two games with Atlanta (11-15 overall, 5-6 road) on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) and Friday (7:30, NBC Sports Boston). The Nuggets are better than their record indicates (like the Celtics, they reached their conference final in the bubble) and the Hawks are in a tailspin themselves but as these past few games for the C's have shown, they can't afford to overlook anybody at the moment-no matter if they are some of the NBA's worst teams.

Covid-19 Hits The Celtics But They Still Managed To Beat The Wizards 116-107 With Three Guys Out

 

    Playing outside of the safety of the Disney bubble this season, it was only a matter of time before the Celtics (7-3 overall, 3-1 home) had their own coronavirus outbreak. This morning we found out that center Robert Williams had tested positive for Covid-19 while center Tristan Thompson and forward Grant Williams will also be out for at least the next seven days since they are deemed to be close contacts of him. There were no excuses because Boston had a game to play tonight at TD Garden and but in truth, they were lucky it was against one of the worst teams not only in the Eastern Conference but in the entire league: the Wizards (2-7 overall, 2-3 away). I don't know if it says more about the pride of the C's that they led by as much as 28 points (77-49) in the third quarter or how hopeless Washington already is in early January. The Wizards showed a bit of professionalism when they cut that huge lead down to four points midway through the fourth quarter but Boston was able to hold on for a satisfying 116-107 win-their fourth in a row. 

    Down three of their top four big guys, all that Celts head coach Brad Stevens had left to choose from at center were Daniel Theis (10 points, 6 rebounds) and Tacko Fall (4 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks). Theis picked up two early fouls but he shook that off to play 29 minutes while Fall played a career-high 19 minutes. Boston's top two players forward Jayson Tatum (team-high 32 points, 5 rebounds) and shooting guard Jaylen Brown (27 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) both played very well to make up for their missing teammates. Point guard Marcus Smart (13 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) is still struggling with his shot (2-for-10 from the field) but he made up for that by going 9-for-11 at the free throw line. Rookie point guard Payton Pritchard (11 points, 2 steals) hit the biggest shot of the night: a 3-pointer that boosted Boston's lead back to seven after Washington trimmed it to 99-95. 

    Wizards superstar shooting guard Bradley Beal (41 points) has scored a combined 101 points (!!!) in the last two games but his awful team has lost both of those. Nobody should blame him when he inevitably demands for a trade at some point soon this season. His head coach is that empty suit Scott Brooks and point guard Russell Westbrook (12 points, 8 assists) looks like a shell of himself. Other than that, who else is on the Wizards? Forward Rui Hachimura (17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) is decent and forward Davis Bertans (13 points) is a nice three-point shooter off the bench (the C's wanted him last season at the trade deadline), but overall yuck. 

    Boston jumped out to a 33-28 lead after one quarter and they blitzed Washington out of the Garden in the second quarter en route to a 66-47 halftime advantage. The Wizards outscored the Celtics 34-30 in the third quarter and Washington took the fourth quarter (26-20) as Boston clearly ran out of gas but they made just enough winning plays to walk away with an impressive effort in tough circumstances (that'll probably happen to every NBA team in 2021). The C's attempted nearly twice as many free throws (30-16) as the Wizards and hit eight more of them (22-14). The Celts also grabbed 12 more rebounds (50-38) including five more offensive boards (12-7). If I were a Wizards fan (not that those exist), I would be pretty depressed about those numbers. 

    Boston is going to have to bring that same type of effort on Sunday night (7, NBC Sports Boston) as they host the Heat (3-4) in a rematch from their thriller on Wednesday in Miami. It'll take something special for the Celtics to beat them once again, this time without those three aforementioned guys. Heat center Bam Adebayo could have a field day against Theis and Fall but that's Brad Stevens' problem to worry about, not mine. Until then, let's be happy that the Celtics have one of the best records in the NBA and they are playing better team basketball in each successive contest.

UPDATE 1/9/21: It's a new year but we still apparently cannot have nice things as this afternoon trusted NBA reporter Shams Charania said that Tatum is "expected to enter quarantine and miss 10-to-14 days due to Covid-19 health and safety protocols." Bravo NBA, a little over two weeks into the regular season and multiple teams already have coronavirus outbreaks. What else did you expect happening with everybody outside of the bubble (which while miserable was also highly effective)?

UPDATE 1/10/21: Tonight's Celtics-Heat game has been postponed (according to Miami's Twitter account) because a bunch of players on both teams would have been out due to Covid-19 or contract tracing so it will be rescheduled for a later date. What a mess. 

UPDATE 1/11/21: You're not going to believe this but tomorrow night's Celtics at Bulls game has also been postponed along with tonight's Pelicans at Mavericks game. The NBA has a full on Covid-19 outbreak on its hands.

UPDATE 1/12/21: Tomorrow night's Celtics vs Magic game has been postponed as well and will be rescheduled for a later date. Lather, rinse & repeat.